Jubilant student marchers passed under a bridge lined with local supporters on April 27, 1989, a day which Adi Ignatius, at the time the WSJ’s Beijing bureau chief, calls one of the most memorable of his career. See more photos from 1989.

Associated Press

Adi Ignatius was the Beijing bureau chief of The Wall Street Journal from 1987-90, responsible for overseeing the Journal’s coverage of the 1989 pro-democracy student protests and the subsequent government crackdown, which killed hundreds.

Now back in the U.S. as editor-in-chief of the Harvard Business Review, Mr. Ignatius spoke to China Real Time on the 25th anniversary of the Tiananmen Square crackdown about what it was like to cover the protests, how the event altered the course of modern Chinese history and how China has changed.

What was it like covering 1989?

Thrilling, initially. When [reform-minded leader] Hu Yaobang died, [sparking the movement], it caught all of us off guard. This was in the day before cellphones and the Internet. It felt dangerous and thrilling. I was one of the naive ones who thought that something positive could come out of it, even though there were other journalists who said no way.

How did you cover it?

We would go to [Tiananmen Square] every day to try to figure out what was going on. Everything was happening there. It was a bit of a game of cat and mouse, with students making demands, and the government refusing.

There were a million or more people in the streets, and citizens were organizing traffic. Everything was very orderly and safe. While Zhongnanhai said that everything was in chaos, in reality it was something very different. The students were so organized.

What moment stands out to you most?

After the People’s Daily ran its editorial [denouncing the protests on April 26], when the students still decided to march. That was the most unforgettable day of my life. At the campuses in Beijing, I saw people weeping and the farewells and the tears, while professors were urging the students not to march, warning them it wasn’t a joke and blood would be shed. People were writing goodbyes to their families. Then when they marched, we didn’t know what was going to happen, but the soldiers let the students go through and there was this sense of euphoria and accomplishment.

Adi Ignatius, then with The Wall Street Journal, covering the protests in Beijing in 1989.

Adi Ignatius

What were the biggest challenges covering the protests?

I think we all kind of fell in love with the students and their ideals. As a human, it’s hard not to have those emotions, but as a journalist, you have to fight that as much as you can to try keep a bigger perspective.

At what point in the weeks of protests did you realize things were getting out of control and the government might respond violently?

When martial law was declared, it was scary, even though nothing happened for a while. But now we know…that there was a power struggle going on [in the party], which almost never happens—that isn’t supposed to happen in a one-party state.

What was it like covering China in the immediate aftermath of Tiananmen? Did it get harder?

It was horrible. It was the worst year of my life. It had always been tough to interview anyone in China, but that year, you literally needed permission to talk to anyone at any time. I had friends who disappeared. It was such a liability to be in contact with a foreign journalist. And there were no cellphones, no email, so it was months before I even knew if some of my friends had survived.

How did the crackdown change China’s path?

People credit Deng Xiaoping as saying the crackdown was worth it. All of the propaganda says Tiananmen was necessary for reforms. But I don’t buy that. China lost at least a couple years because of this before they set the ship right. China was always going to take off [economically], they didn’t have to have a crackdown.

How has China changed since 1989?

No one anticipated that it would grow this rapidly. If we’re honest, none of us would’ve thought the party would’ve remained in control, running a country as economically successful as it has. The question now is: is it sustainable? I think not, but when will it not be? Tomorrow? Fifty years from now?

In those years, there really was an air of possibility that contributed to what happened in 1989 that is just absent now. It seems tame today. In 1989, we were at a crossroads to see what kind of society China would have. Now it’s settled: You can get rich, but you can’t open your mouth. From my American perspective, I can’t help but think if I were Chinese, I’d be disappointed with that bargain.

April 19: Thousands gather at Beijing's Tiananmen Square to mark the death of former Communist Party General Secretary Hu Yaobang, who had promoted political and social change before being ousted by party leaders in 1987.
Associated Press…

April 21: Tens of thousands of people crowd at the Martyr's Monument at Tiananmen Square.
Associated Press…

April 22: Several hundred of the 200,000 pro-democracy student protesters sit face to face with police outside the Great Hall of the People in Tiananmen Square as they took part in Hu's funeral ceremony.
AFP/Getty Images…

April 27: A day after a front-page editorial in Communist Party's People's Daily denounced the student protests and called the movement a conspiracy to 'plunge the whole country into chaos and sabotage,' soldiers confront the protesters but allow them to pass unharmed.
Associated Press…

May 4: Thousands of students from local colleges and universities march to Tiananmen Square. The date was significant because it recalled the May Fourth Movement, a 1919 student protest against the treatment of China in the Treaty of Versailles that ended World War I.
AP ASSOCIATED PRESS…

May 13: Motivated by growing discontent over official corruption, human-rights abuses and societal restrictions, protests continue. Several hundred students begin a hunger strike.
Catherine Henriette/AFP/Getty Images…

May 15: Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev arrives for a historic summit to normalize relations between China and the then-communist superpower. The timing of the visit presents the government with difficult questions, including whether to proceed at all, given the hundreds of thousands of students already massing at Tiananmen Square. The large contingent of journalists on hand for the summit provides a publicity bonanza for the protesters, sending images and footage of the square around the world.
Associated Press…

May 16: Employees of Central China Television, the country's state broadcaster, flash their press cards as they join student strikers for democracy in Tiananmen Square.
AP…

May 18: Beijing magistrates wearing court uniforms join workers demonstrating in the streets in support of student hunger strikers. That same day, Premier Li Peng summons several student leaders for a televised meeting at the Great Hall of the People.
AFP/Getty Images…

May 19: Hoping to prevent bloodshed, Communist Party General Secretary Zhao Ziyang goes to Tiananmen Square to call on the students to stop protesting. The hunger strike is called off after the government's plans for martial law in Beijing become public, and students declare a mass sit-in. It will turn out to be the last time Zhao is seen in public. Virtually airbrushed out of China's recent history, he will remain under house arrest, rarely allowed out of his home, until his death in 2005.
AFP/Getty Images…

May 20: On the day martial law is declared in Beijing, a Beijing University student reads a list of goals of the Tiananmen Square occupation to People's Liberation Army troops. The troops, en route to the square, are turned back by the crowds.
Associated Press…

May 22: Raising a banner reading 'Lift Martial Law and Protect the Capital,' journalists from the People's Daily lead a march toward Tiananmen Square in an authorized demonstration in support of pro-democracy students.
AFP/Getty Images…

May 23: Some protesters throw paint at the giant portrait of Mao Zedong overlooking Tiananmen Square, but are seized by other protesters and turned over to authorities. Troops pull back to the outskirts of Beijing.
Associated Press…

May 30: The Statue of Liberty-like Goddess of Democracy is erected in Tiananmen Square.
Associated Press…

June 1: As the occupation continues, a young girl dances on the square.
Associated Press…

June 2: Hundreds of thousands of protesters gather around the Goddess of Democracy in Tiananmen Square.
AFP/Getty Images…

June 3: A student asks soldiers to go back home as crowds flood central Beijing. Troops receive an order to reclaim the square at all costs, and at 10 p.m., tanks and armed soldiers began advancing.
AFP/Getty Images…

June 4: Some of the hundreds of civilians believed to have been killed in the retaking of Tiananmen Square. There is no official death toll.
Associated Press…

June 5: A man confronts a line of tanks passing by the Beijing Hotel. The man's identity and fate are unknown, but his act becomes an iconic image of individual resistance to tyranny.
Jeff Widener/Associated Press…

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